Misc...

Some random stuff...

CJ thought Nicholas needed ALL his toys now that he can hold them, although I'm not sure what the purpose of the bead string is...

I started putting Nicholas in his Exersaucer, I'm trying to get his poor misshapen melon back to normal. I would rather avoid the helmet route if possible. I figure the more time he is off his head the better, I'm also getting a Bumbo seat also to put him in. Don't worry all you worrywarts I won't put him in it on the countertop.

Work has been rather icky lately, I think we are running our own nursing home for the demented and immobile, throw some psych in there and you've got our nursing unit. Hopefully tomorrow will be better when I go back.

After renewing my CPR today...

Did you know CPR for laypeople has changed? There are now only 2 steps...seriously...

1) Call 911

2) Push hard and fast in the center of the chest.

Really, that's it? They've dumbed it down to 2 easy steps.

This is what the American Heart Association says about Hands Only CPR

Don’t be afraid. Your actions can only help.
It’s not normal to see an adult suddenly collapse, but if you do, call 911 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest. Don’t be afraid. Your actions can only help

Okay, can we add just another step in there...because the next time Mara falls in the skyway she might end up with bruises to her sternum. Whatever happened to "Annie, Annie are you okay?" So maybe there should be 3 steps...because if we are going to dumb it down, we better be specific... 1) Check to make sure the person is nonresponsive - ie...not breathing, and it's not THAT hard to check a pulse. 2)then call 911 and 3)go to town on the center of the chest.

The Car Has Arrived!

CJ has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of his car he got for Christmas from Papa Chuck and Grandma Patty. It was being kept at their house until it was nice enough outside to drive. He's in love...





He's yet to figure out the reverse function completely.

Ode to Reagan...

With Nicholas's new grasping skills I thought I would try one of CJ, Reagan and Rylee's favorite toys as babies.

Mara, remember how Reagan used to scream and get so frustrated when she couldn't get it into her mouth the way she wanted. Hmmm...the "I want my way" started so young, and continues today! See this post... Only now she can talk!

Give the kid a f'ing prize!

So the tooth saga continues...

After seeing the dentist last week CJ's tooth pain seemed to be subsiding. He didn't complain at all about his tooth hurting this week until last night. And today, he made up for all his complaint free days with blood curdling screams all day. At one point his screams were so loud, Nicholas pouted up his lip and cried the saddest cry, some sympothy cry. This time his tooth pain was more on the side. Hindsight is easy...I should have just taken him to the doctor. But no, back to the dentist we went.

Usually getting to the dentist CJ makes a bee line for the video games, but not this time, he just sat in my lap and cried. He sat in the dentist chair, let the assistant look around, she couldn't see anything so he got re-x-rayed. They didn't get very a good picture because he was moving around too much and holding the thing on his tooth hurt too bad. Dr. Brent came and took a look. By the time he got there CJ was REALLY worked up into a fit and we actually had to hold him down so Dr. Brent could look at his teeth. I think CJ shares my claustrophobia, he HATES to be held down. Dr. Brent couldn't really see anything, but didn't feel they got good x-rays. So, he gave a prescription for an antibiotic. Meanwhile CJ's still screaming that his tooth hurt and now he just wants to go home. While I'm putting his coat on, he asks if he can have his prize. (they have a little prize basket in each room). The assistant looks at him and says, "Sorry, you don't get a prize today for that." I was speechless, what...the kid is in pain, you can't do anything to help it, but you still won't let him have a prize. A f'ing 50 cent plastic piece of crap? Now CJ's screaming because he doesn't get a prize, "but I always get a prize" he says. She looked at me and said, "Sorry mom". Bitch.

So, I basically had to drag CJ out of there, I'm sure we were quite the sight! I tried to talk him into letting me take him to the ER but he wouldn't have anything to do with it. So, we went home, he fell asleep screaming on the rug in front of the door. After much more screaming and negotiating we agreed we would go to St. Paul to see the Snoopy outside of Children's hospital and they would make his tooth all better.

So, off to Children's ER we went. Before we left he got some Tylenol, Ibuprofen, a dose of the antibiotic and some Orajel - which he hated because he said it was spicy. Actually I tasted it, and it is a little spicy.

He screamed for awhile on the way, and then fell asleep. By the time we drove by Snoopy, parked and got to the ER he was much calmer. The nurse right away said, his cheek and lips are swollen is it his left side? Gotta love an observant nurse! So, CJ got to have a head CT - she suspected sinus infection but she said an x-ray doesn't show sinuses very well in kids. Luckily it was without the IV contrast so they didn't have to start an IV. CJ LOVED the CT, and Children's was GREAT! They made the CT seem like this really cool rocket/space ship that CJ got to try out, there were little star lights all over the ceiling, she made a really big deal about how cool it was. I got to stay in the room with him, she asked if there were any chance I were pregnant - ah no, just been there did that! She even strapped his head in and he stayed perfectly still and said he couldn't wait to tell Dylan that he got to ride on a space ship.

And the best part - HE GOT A PRIZE AFTER HIS HEAD CT...BECAUSE IT'S NOT ABOUT THE DIAGNOSIS, IT'S ABOUT MAKING THE EXPERIENCE POSITIVE! NEWSFLASH!

So the diagnosis, raging sinus infection, he's probably had it for weeks. They didn't really know why his symptoms come and go, but now hopefully he's on the right track.

His mean mom (that would be me) opted for the antibiotic shots (yep, two - one in each leg) followed by oral antiobiotics for quicker recovery. She said otherwise it could take up to 3-4 days before he would feel better - yeah, no thanks, not doing this any longer than we have to.

So, I hope we can now put the tooth saga to rest. And I don't think we will be returning to Children's Dental Care in Lakeville...and don't send your friends either! Everything was really fine up until the prize shaft. It still ticks me off! I'm curious to find out if this is an office policy or a bitchy assistant...

New pics and video of the boy

Back by popular demand, video!

Still hating hats...

But apparently he understands the importance of wearing hats outdoors, he tolerated his hat just fine...

His new skill...grasping...

Smiley guy!

80!

This weekend we celebrated my Grandma Bergeron's 80th birthday party. I had every good intention of taking a ton of pictures, but this is all I got.

My sister Mara, my cousin-in-law to be Jeff, my cousin Carrie, my brother-in-law Jason

My cousins Michelle and Nicole

The birthday girl

Never too old to blow out candles!

The kids stayed at Mara's with Whitney the babysitter - make that rock star babysitter! She is affectionately known in our family as Whip-me. The girls couldn't say Whitney when they were younger and it came out Whip-me. She gets those kids in bed by 8:30, asleep by 9:00. I don't know how she does it, but she is worth every penny we pay her!

Lego Land

CJ has thoroughly loved the new Legos he got from my co-worker Linda. He's always having ME build these creations. Of course since my creative juices tend to be sludge rather than flow, I copy the book! I teased him he should be taking pictures of me with the Legos!

Perscription Toothpaste?

The last few nights CJ has woken up SCREAMING, that his teeth hurt. And I mean, deep, loud, owie scream. At the same time he's also had this nasty chapped upper lip. I couldn't really tell if its the lip or his teeth are really bothering him. Well after last nights restless sleep I decided to have it checked out at the dentist before the weekend. So, after x-rays and an exam, the diagnosis: teeth grinder. Yet another trait attributed to the Bergeron's...drooling, teeth grinding, talking too much, what is with Bergeron's and their mouths? So, the dentist's recommendation...perscription toothpaste. Huh? Yep, $18 for a little tube of melon paste, of course not typically covered by insurance. Hopefully it works, it's supposed to help rebuild the enamel that gets worn off with grinding and decrease the sensitivity. We'll see.

Writing of Bergeron's talking too much reminded me of being in the hospital when Nicholas was born. United Hospital has these white boards where the nurse, etc can write their name, you write the activity level and there is a spot that says..."This patient speaks...", where you are supposed to fill in the language spoken. Well not for this patient, my dear sister Mara filled in the blank with ..."too much".

Excuse me...?

I ordered a bunch of Bee movie and bee supplies for CJ's upcoming bee-day party. One of the items I ordered from Oriental Trading Company were these bee magnet craft kit things. I opened a couple today and they have the following sayings on them...

"Bee Helpeul"
"Bee Patiet"

...excuse me, could we not spell correctly?

And another spelled correctly, but I'm not too sure on the message...
"Bee Obedient" - yep order me 8 of these please, all kids getting one of those in their party favor bag!

I called to complain - didn't really want to send back my $3.95 item for a refund. She is happily shipping me another set. Great! Now I can have double misspelled and derogatory bees!

Obedient just screams - "subservient wife" to me.

Her comment was, "yeah, they aren't made in the USA." Really...ya think! Thank you for being helpeul and patiet!

Nothing new in the LeFebvre world...

I keep thinking I should update the blog but there really isn't much going on, here is some more randomness...

Charlie got a new client - and the best kind - a paying client (not the slacker whiny wifey kind).

CJ went back to the "kids area" at the gym with me tonight, no further stories of teasing thankfully.

Nicholas is on the verge of a giggle - he does a quick gasp in of air and big smile, but no sound escapes yet. But rest assured, as soon as I can capture it on video I will post some.

I was more than thrilled that ER returned with new episodes tonight, now if the rest of the good shows (ie. Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives) would join in, all would be right with TV land.

Work is good, it's good to be back. I could have lots to post with work stuff...funny, sad, gross...but there is this little thing called HIPPA and I don't want to be dooced. (ie. lose your job over something in a blog)

Here's a question to all the LeFebvre Party of 4 followers, if you could have any talent that you don't currently have, what would it be? I wish I could sing, and be a photographer - even as a hobby. I know half that battle is your camera, but I still suck at taking pictures. And the singing, nope can't carry a tune. I could sure make it on the reject show of American Idol though!

Mean Girls

Ever since I joined Lifetime, CJ has been wanting to come with me to play in the "kids area" as he calls it while I work out. Today I let him and this was our conversation as we walked out the door.
CJ: Those girls at the coloring table said I was stinky
Me: Did you have a duck? (code word in our house for a fart)
CJ: No, they just said I was stinky
Me: Why did they say you were stinky?
CJ: I don't know, they said I pooped in diapers. But I told them I was a big kid now and pooped on the toilet.
Me: What did you do?
CJ: Nothing, I don't like being called stinky
Me: Yeah, that's not very nice. Next time tell them, "that's not very nice" and if they keep calling you stinky you can tell the teacher if they keep bothering you (parenting dilema: you don't want your kid to be the tattle-tale, but you don't want them to endure teasing either)
CJ: That's okay, I'll just take a bath next time before we go to the gym to play in the kids area

Poor kid, kids start being mean so early. Even though it didn't really phase him that he was being made fun of, it still breaks my heart. Poor kid truly thought he was stinky. What I really wanted to tell him to say was, "listen up you bitches, knock it off or my mom will kick your ass."

Random weekend pics

Now that our fatherless, husbandless weekend is over I actually have time to update the blog. I must give kudos to all the single mothers out there, I can't imagine doing this on a full time basis. Life is definitely more fulfilling and easier with two parents!

This one is titled... "hmmm...should I take a nap?" - this pic also shows his balding little head

He's really been enjoying his overhead gym, actually it was CJ's from when he was a baby

Here's a picture of CJ enjoying the same gym, he's about 4 months old in this picture

We went to the Bain's on Friday/Saturday to break up the monotony. The weather was beautiful, and we were able to spend all day outside. CJ really liked using Callie's scooter. It reaffirmed my thoughts on getting him one for his birthday. Tonight at dinner, I told Charlie we should get him a s-c-o-o-t-e-r for his birthday, CJ said "what a scooter?". Charlie said, "what did you teach him to spell too?"

Nicholas did what he does best, sleep in his stroller...

The girls had fun pushing him around the driveway, apparently Reagan thinks it may be a dangerous job and dresses for the occasion...

CJ was completely pooped out and fell asleep before dinner time. When I bring up the weekend now, he still whines that he missed dinner.

Let's see if I can get this video to work of Nicholas talking... (turn on your computer volume, and obviously press the > button)

Well, that was easier than I thought, took a little video with my camera, not the best quality, but it works for bloggerland. Oooh, I can't wait to post videos of all the little milestones, rolling, walking, crawling...so much fun.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

The last couple of days I've been scolding the kitty cat for getting into Nicholas's crib. I see traces of her hair up where he sleeps at night. Until today, then I realized...no the culprit isn't the cat, it's Nicholas losing his hair. :( The little man is turning into a baldie. CJ lost his hair a few months after birth also, I'm anxious to see what color Nicholas's hair is going to be. When CJ regrew his, he was all blonde. We shall see!

Back to Work!

Today's the day I go back to work. I'm a little excited, a little sad, but overall ready to get back into the work routine. I'll be working all evening shifts which is great because that means NO DAYCARE! I think this will be great for the boys, have some good time with dad! My scheduler was really nice to me and eased me back into things. Gave me an orientation/get back into it shift today and then back with a full assignment tomorrow then I have 6 days off! I think I'm going to like working a 0.7. Charlie has his Laughlin trip coming up this weekend so it will be me and the boys for the weekend. After all the snow we are supposed to get today, I'm sure he's ready for some fun in the sun.

Baptism Day!

Today was Nicholas's baptism day, we had a wonderful day...nice weather, wonderful family and friends, and a great time. Poor godfather Mark was iller than ill, but he put on his best "I'm not going to puke face" and endured the event. Thank you to everyone who came and help make Nicholas's baptism a memorable event! Here are some pictures of the blessed occasion...



Nicholas's Godfamily


Team Nicholas


What a good little boy, praying in church already...


A little better view of the top of his outfit, handmade by Grandma Beth


Where's CJ? He wasn't exactly Mr. Cooperative for the picture taking part...oh well, he is 3 after all!

Lifetime Poo

So, I went and joined Lifetime Fitness today. Despite all my good intentions of taking advantage of living with a personal trainer, reality just gets in the way. Charlie gets off work at 2:00, goes to the gym until 4, by the time he gets home and we could work out, CJ's usually beyond needing to take a nap and Nicholas is having his fussy time, dinner needs to get made, yada yada yada, excuses, excuses, excuses. So, I gave up my unused for a year membership to Snap Fitness and joined Lifetime. The main reason - childcare. I can take the boys to the childcare during the day and go workout without having to throw the family schedule off balance.

The Lifetime Poo title comes from our experience tonight. First back up to May or June when we went to Moorhead to visit Mom and go to cousin Josh's grad party. We stayed at a hotel in Fargo with a "water park". Right after dinner, Mara happened to step in some poo at the bottom of the pool. Well that led to clearing and closing the pool for the rest of the night.

Fast forward to tonight, CJ talked me into taking him swimming at Lifetime after supper. Sure enough, the poo follows us wherever we go. About 20 minutes into our "swim", clear the pool we have some poo. After 2 incidents of poo in the pool I would think it was CJ! Thankfully no, in Fargo he had a swim diaper on and today we were no where near the deep end where the perpetrator did his/her business. CJ's comment, "Somebody forgot to tell their mommy they had to poop." And of course he immediately remembered the Fargo poop incident, and talked about it for a good hour.

Take a deep breath...I'm going to do it...

I'm going completely digital for scrapbooking. This won't be an easy or quick task, and it might actually be a little painful. It requires quite a bit of prework...

1) Buy a laptop - yeah, yeah I know Charlie we haven't exactly talked about this yet...
2) Buy an external hard drive to store everything
2) Buy a digital scrapbook program - sounds like PhotoShop Elements is the way to go
3) Learn what the heck I am doing

but then the thing I love to do best - get rid of stuff! Emily already called first dibs on my scrapbooking supplies. Jean, Michelle, anyone else who's interested?

I'll keep some stuff for cardmaking, but not much.

You can print a 12x12 scrapbook page for about $3.50 online - or you can do a whole scrapbook and have them print and bind it for you. There are a ton of free digital kits to work with from the net. Imagine the money I will save from all the paper/stickers I have bought over the years and never used. I could pay off that laptop in no time.

Imagine...showing up to the Amery Scrapbook weekend with just a laptop bag...
Imagine...sitting on my couch and scrapbooking
Imagine...being able to scrapbook more than once a year
Imagine...not having stickies stuck to everything!
Imagine...all the space I'll have!

Oh, call me a traitor but I love it already!

What the heck is this? - a posting by Nicholas

Hmm... what the heck is this? I can see it flailing around out there...

Tastes kinda funny...

Maybe I can eat the whole thing...

Ka-Pow...it just hit me in the nose...

Maybe I should start small with just a piece of it...

I'm getting pretty sleepy, maybe I try again later...

A note from Mom - so far he's only discovered his left hand - does this mean he's going to be a lefty?

And a cute pic from yesterday, just because...

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

7 years ago..

We were in Las Vegas at the Bellagio, getting ready for our big day. A quick recap of the day...

...the guys went in the limo to the tuxedo shop to rent tuxedos
...the girls went to the Bellagio Salon to have our hair/makeup done
...you and Dad and Jason sat by the pool
...our Wedding at the Chapels at Bellagio
...getting our pictures takes around the grounds of Bellagio
...dancing at the Baccarat Lounge waiting to go to dinner
...took a limo to dinner
...dinner at Manhattan in Las Vegas
...took the limo back to the Venetian for some more pictures - but no gondola ride
...took a cab (yep a cab in a wedding dress) back to Bellagio
...took pictures in front of the Bellagio fountains
...gambled a little in our wedding garb





















And look at some of the milestones for the past 7 years...
...I went to nursing school and became an RN
...You started college at MSB
...Had a beautiful little boy named CJ
...Sold the townhouse and bought our home in Farmington
...You graduated from MSB and became a personal trainer
...Had a beautiful little boy named Nicholas

Here's to many more years and many more milestones!

Still trying

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